Not long after he was elected Duterte launched this bizarre rant at the UN. Two months later two United Nations human rights experts urged the Government to end the wave of extrajudicial executions and killings, stressing that drug charges should be “judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets.”

In October he said: “Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there is three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

While Hitler’s victims were innocent people, Duterte said his targets were “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the [drug] problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition”.

“These sons of whores are destroying our children . . . if you know any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself.”

“I assure you you won’t go bankrupt (if you set up a funeral parlour). If your business slows, I will tell the police, ‘Do it faster’.”

Directly after taking power, Duterte went to a Manila slum and encouraged locals to take the law into their own hands and murder those linked to drugs.

“In this venue, I announce my separation from the United States. America has lost. I’ve realigned myself in your (Chinese) ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia.

“It’s the only way.”

The Phillipines has been an ally of the US for decades, but the motormouth politician appeared to signal an end to the relationship in a meeting with Chinese businessmen in October.

Once again it was left to his spokesman to soothe ruffled feathers. “Let us not be too literal,” he said.

“You’ve seen the way he speaks, so in other words watch and understand the context of what he says, okay?”

Around 6,000 people have died so far

“Son of a whore.”

President Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte after being on the receiving end of this insult following US condemnation of the massacres. The Philippine president’s spokesman bizarrely claimed the attack was not personal.